The morning saw me exploring some of the ice levels in Maximo, however by the afternoon Maximo had been put on hold as I had purchased the RPG, Atelier Iris 3.

While the Atelier Iris series has thus far been an okay, but not outstanding series, I have none-the-less enjoyed it. Although I am not far into it, I'm not too sure I'm too fond of being timed as I explore the dungeons. I'm glad to see that the random battles have been removed though, and I like the idea of prizes earned after a finished dungeon run.

No real progress in Maximo, I used today to go back and collect all the gems in the first two sets of levels. It just doesn't seem fair that I should judge the game without fully mastering it, right?

Today I continued to play the game 'Maximo: Ghosts to Glory' for the PS2. It is as I thought, Maximois your typical no surprises platformer. While the controls are easy to handle and the levels are designed to be hard but not TOO hard, Maximo totally falls short of any kind of actual excitement or originality. It starts you out as your typical knight, well, king, but you wouldn't believe it... now trigger the events that lead you to... save the princess! More or less the story of every second NES game, isn't it? Of course before you can save your true love and save the earth from the vile evil wizard, you're ganna' go and save all the other women he happens to have locked up, and so you adventure begines!

The first set of levels has you in a graveyard, naturally, I mean, don't all medieval games start there? Fight your way through your standard skeleton warriors andzombies, jump over thetreacherous lava pits (who keeps building graveyards over lava?), and find your way to the first tower where you face a hunchback gravedigger named Ghasty Gus! First maiden saved... yeah, lets hope things get more original from here on...

To the second lot of levels! We find ourselves... in a swamp. Of course, we ALWAYS find ourselves in a swamp. Nothing new here; more zombies, skeletons, the occasional alligator, and the lava has been replaced with swamp water full of tentacles that rape you to death if you fall in. Oh, there are also tar pits you can die in if you stand still, but they're no big problem. After all this you face a voodoo magician named Bokor La Bas. It's actually quite easy to beat him without taking any damage at all, just like Gus. Oh well... second maiden saved. And another kiss... hoo-bloody-ray.

And here is where I'm up to at this point. Ugh, the typical ice level. But hey, they tried to spice it up a little by mixing it with... pirates! Yup, now you have zombies, skeletons, and zombie pirates after you as you slip and slide about on the ice. Come on Maximo, you'd be a pretty good game if you just tried to not show me stages I've been playing since the late 80s.

Adventure shall continue tomorrow!

I've decided to use this as my gaming blog, mainly for personal use, as I doubt anyone would bother reading it. Hehe.

Today I decided to play a few old NES games I haven't in a while, and started with one of my old favourites; Monster in My Pocket. It's amazing how easy that game is to breeze through, even after years of not playing it. Within less than an hour the game was completed with little effort. Next I played a little of Home Alone 2, Bart vs. the Space Mutants and Terminator 2,all of which I quicky got bored of. Although I've completed all three in the past, I was clearly rusty, and got killed before long. Next I put in Double Dragon II, another game that I loved as a kid. I had a slightly harder time than I used too, but quickly completed it with a good few lives to spare. Other than a few minutes of Tennis and World Cup, that's where my classic adventure ended for the day.

After a rest, I put in Project Zero II (Fatal Frame II to Americans) for the PS2, a game which my girlfriend got me as a present. As with many games of late, I decided to start again rather than continue from where I was... I've yet to get very far in the game at all. As with most my horror-type games, despite the fact I quite like it, it's taking me a long time to get into it. I tent to find games like that (or Silent Hill) intimidating, but once I get into it, I should speed up.

Finally for today I've been playing Maximo for the PS2, a game which my sister got me a good while back. When I first played it I didn't get past the first level due to my lack of skill with the analogue stick, but now I'm used to using it (through GTA games) I'm doing better. The game looks promising, though it reminds me of Medievil. We shall see...